I stumbled across a sweet old ducati barn find that's been sitting in the back of a moto shop in Mexico for about 20 years and has ZERO documents. The seller wants basically nothing for it and it's in good restorable shape. I'm just wondering if there's any possibility of legalizing it in my name here in Mexico. If not I'll still probably buy it and ship it back to the states as parts. I'll probably just need to find a "creative" lawyer, but thought I'd ask around if anyone has done anything like this first. Also, I'm nowhere close to the border, so taking it out and bringing back in as a US bike on my FM3 isn't really an option.

Go to yoour local "oficina de control Vehicular" and ask them what you will need. I was in one on Friday and a guy was asking about buying a car with no papers. He was told the seller needs to give him an invoice which then needs to be notarized. It didn't sound that complicated but on the other hand the guy just thanked him and walked away.
We are in Mexico and almost anything will be possible.

The key piece of paper is the "Factura" or invoice as we call it in the States. The fellow who has the bike probably has facturas available if he is in business. This becomes the "Title" after it is filled out with the bike description, Vin #, price in pesos and buyers name. The purchase price can be minimal due to the age of the bike.
The next document needed is an importation document called a "Pedimento". Again since the bike is so old this document does not exist. So.... take your new Factura down to the "Transito office" with someone who speaks Spanish and you may get a new "Placa" which we call a license plate in the USA.
Be patient!!!

The key piece of paper is the "Factura" or invoice as we call it in the States. The fellow who has the bike probably has facturas available if he is in business. This becomes the "Title" after it is filled out with the bike description, Vin #, price in pesos and buyers name. The purchase price can be minimal due to the age of the bike.
The next document needed is an importation document called a "Pedimento". Again since the bike is so old this document does not exist. So.... take your new Factura down to the "Transito office" with someone who speaks Spanish and you may get a new "Placa" which we call a license plate in the USA.
Be patient!!!

Just watch out that it was never registered in that particular state in Mexico in the past and a tenencia was paid. If it was you could be on the hook for a multitude of tenencias past due in order to license it.
Having said that, it looks like it was a bike that someone had been riding and then sold cheap, this happened a lot in the old days and was the only way to get a large capacity bike for many, many years because they were just not available here. That didn't change until the very late 90's in any substantial way. It was like the cars, the only luxury big cars you could get for many years were Crown Vics etc... and then things really opened up in the late 90's with many more makes and models becoming available.
Very coooooool find! :)

Well, to answer my own question:
Today my girlfriend took the frame over to the local transito office and played the clueless gringa card. After being told by several DMV robots that without a signed, notarized factura and pedimento it would be impossible to register, she saw the jefe outside smoking a cigarette in the shade under a tree. She put on her best sob story face and went and asked him if there was any possible way to do it. He instructed her to go give a sworn statement before a judge stating that she lost all the documents (even though he knew that wasn't the case). We now have to wait 20 days to process it, but it looks like it all might go through. Due to the age of the bike, even if it had been imported legally, it would not be in any searchable electronic database, so it looks like we may have found just the loophole we were looking for. There's always a way in Mexico...